Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 3 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 4 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Image 6 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 7 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 8 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 9 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 13 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 17 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 22 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 23 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 27 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 28 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 29 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Image 31 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 32 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 33 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Image 34 of 37

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Chronic absenteeism in Southeast Texas school districts versus the national and state average.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights

Photo: Izabela Habur/Getty Images

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Some Hardin County districts beat the Texas average on truancy, others exceed it.

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Southeast Texas schools are trying everything from counseling to bribery to remedy absenteeism, which is prevalent in several local districts, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education in June.

A report released last week, which analyzed 2013-14 data from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, found that half of the nation's chronically absent students attend just 4 percent of districts across the country, one of which is Beaumont ISD.

The Office for Civil Rights defines a chronically absent student as one who misses 15 or more days in a school year, regardless of whether the absences are excused or unexcused. The 2013-14 school year was the first for which the department requested the information from schools.

Nationally, more than 6.5 million students - or about 13 percent - missed that many days. Texas students were slightly lower, at 12 percent.

Since the 2013-14 school year, however, truancy regulations in Texas have changed, and districts are now required to implement programs for preventing and confronting chronic unexcused absences.

Until 2015, Texas was one of two states that made truancy a criminal violation, with sanctions and fines. Now, schools are required to have programs in place to notify parents when students are chronically absent and to provide situational support, with students referred to truancy court if those measures fail.

The state uses a measure of 10 days within six months to determine truancy. The Texas Education Agency tracks school's overall attendance rates, but does not specifically monitor chronic absenteeism.

Those average daily attendance rates are also used in determining state funding, Many districts offer

students rewards to boost that number, by incentivizing perfect or close-to-perfect attendance.

Students who miss substantial amounts of class time are at risk of not receiving credit for the courses they are enrolled in, which can impact promotion to the next grade or graduation.

Common causes of recurring absence include illness, transportation issues or simply not making attendance a priority, local districts said. For older students, employment can also contribute to chronic absence, especially if students are families' primary wage-earners.

Reasons vary by age

Senecia Saveat, Beaumont's assistant director for student services, said those are all issues that the district tries to identify and address as part of truancy prevention programs.

"It's going to look a little bit different at different campuses," she said, because reasons for absence vary by age level.

At all levels, classroom teachers or campus administration are prompted to contact parents when students are absent for consecutive days.

From there, students could be referred to counselors or Communities in Schools liaisons, who work specifically with students at risk of dropping out.

Sometimes, the campus finds a teacher or staff member on the campus who students are required to check in with or finds an extracurricular activity for the student to commit to.

"That's one of our big deterrents (to absence) at the secondary campuses," Saveat said, because extracurricular involvement keeps students engaged in coming to school.

The key is identifying the barriers that are interfering with regular attendance, she said.

Attendance committees also review cases if students attend less than 75 percent of a class, and determine if extenuating circumstances and credit recovery will allow the student to pass that class.

The prevention programs haven't been in place long enough to determine whether they will be more effective than the previous policies, said Nederland ISD Assistant Superintendent Stuart Kieschnick.

"It took some schools away from the school" for filing truancy cases with a justice of the peace, he said, "but it also put more steps in the process to fix it before it becomes a legal matter," Kieschnick said.

Elsewhere in Southeast Texas, 12 other districts also had rates above the state average. West Orange-Cove CISD had the highest chronic absence rate, at 49.27 percent for 2013-2014.

Local administrators, however, emphasized their high overall rates of attendance, which are calculated based on the percentage of registered students who attend each day.

As in Beaumont, preventing both sporadic and chronic absence starts with working with families.

In Evadale, where the 2013-14 chronic absence rate was about 21 percent, the district also uses incentives to encourage attendance, superintendent Gary Fairchild said, though he doesn't consider chronic absence to be a major problem.

"We have not had a kid that has not graduated because of absences"In his four years as superintendent, Fairchild said.

When a student misses several consecutive days, "the first thing we do is make contact with a parent and find out what is going on there," he said. "There may be an issue that we need to deal with."

If a student lives with grandparents or foster parents, for example, he said, or if students are sick or have a chronic illness, that will impact attendance.

Overall, though, "our community is cooperative, it's been pretty easy to get them here," Fairchild said.

Incentives like recognitions for good attendance and prize drawings also "seemed to improve (attendance) some," he said.

Vidor's attendance rate in 2013-14 was 96 percent, according to Director of Communications Sally Andrews, though the Education Department reported that 29 percent of the district's students missed more than 15 days that year.

In addition to automatically contacting parents when students have more than three consecutive unexcused absences, sending letters after six absences and calling families to check on students, the district also runs incentive programs at each campus to encourage attendance, Andrews said.

Those range from popcorn parties to privileges like using cell phones at lunch and wearing shorts on Fridays.

High school students with perfect attendance also can receive scholarships when they graduate, ranging from $360 to $1,000, depending on how many years of perfect attendance they have. Almost 20 percent of graduates earned those in the last two years, Andrews said.

Attendance incentives

Other districts use similar rewards to motivate attendance, which can be as small as five extra minutes of reading or recess time for young students, or as large as drawings for iPads and other prizes for older students.

Those are less targeted at students with critical attendance issues and more at reaching perfect attendance whenever possible.

In Hamshire-Fannett, classes and grades with high attendance can win pizza or ice cream parties, Superintendent Pamela Lechler said, as well as be entered into drawings for gift cards.

In Beaumont, Saveat said that campuses sometimes have competitions between grades for best attendance. Students also can lose privileges, such as being able to drive to school or attend events, if they have poor attendance.

Nederland ISD has perhaps the largest attendance award: Each year, high school students who missed fewer than three days are entered into a drawing for a new car, donated by Philpott Motors.

Kieschnick said that the district began the drawing in the late 1990s, when attendance was around 93 percent.

The incentive had an immediate impact, improving attendance 4 percent and keeping it there.

Students who meet attendance criteria and other academic standards also can be exempt from final exams, he said.

Incentives like those, however, are targeted more at improving general attendance than resolving chronic absence, because those cases tend to have deeper causes that can't be solved by offering a reward.

"Usually there's a problem area that exists before truancy becomes a problem," Kieschnick said, such as family problems at home or drug and alcohol abuse.

No chronic absences

According to the report, 89 percent of school districts in the country reported having chronically absent students.

Locally, however, five districts had none: Deweyville, East Chambers, Hull-Daisetta, Port Neches-Groves and Woodville.

PN-G superintendent Rodney Cavness credited the district's parents and teachers with making sure students are in school.

"We've just got a winning combination. If kids feel welcome and loved and safe, they come to school," he said.

Hull-Daisetta superintendent Mary Huckabay said that an advantage of being a small district is that administrators "know most of the parents and kids personally so we try to keep on top of it."

Connecting with parents is the first line of defense against truancy, local administrators said, and the first step all districts take in dealing with extended absences.

Beaumont ISD has been trying to send a message to families this year about the cumulative impact of absence, Saveat said.

"Most people don't realize how as little as two days a month can add up" over time, she said. "That means that a kid misses 10 percent of the school year."